MUSIC: PLAYLIST

MUSIC: PLAYLIST; Ethiopian Idol: If James Brown Were a Muezzin . . .

By BEN RATLIFF

Published: April 11, 2004

VICTOR MANUELLE -- Mr. Manuelle, from Puerto Rico, is one of the great improvising sonero singers of all time. He's also a bona fide part of the pop machine, subject to its fluctuations. His new album, ''Travesia'' (Sony Discos), comes with a new producer, the Latin pop svengali Emilio Estefan; it contains strong dance-floor salsa and some overly sweet ballads that suddenly unfold into complexity. This is a more versatile record than he's made before -- some would say ''pop,'' derisively, but not me. Veering toward jazz, it's got thick, assertive horn arrangements. And veering toward rock and reggaeton, it's got instrumental touches that you don't find in most other salsa -- accordion, organ and strong guitar riffs.

CHARLES LLOYD AND BILLY HIGGINS -- The great jazz drummer Billy Higgins and the saxophonist Charles Lloyd made the recordings on ''Which Way Is East'' (ECM) at Mr. Lloyd's northern California home; those sessions would turn out to be the last for Mr. Higgins, who was sick with kidney and liver disease, and died at age 64 in 2001. Just being honest: ''Which Way Is East,'' a result of two and a half hours of home taping, is no easy thing to listen to. It's the sound of two old pals -- hippies even before there were hippies -- doing all the things they wanted to. They gloss on the music of northern Africa and Asia and the rural American South, as well as swing grooves, in stripped down, wide open form. The saxophone-drum duets can be wonderful; at the end of his life, Higgins swung better and more maturely, with a wider range of sound, than any other jazz drummer, and Mr. Lloyd performed at his peak in Higgins's rhythms. There are also some sketchy solo piano improvisations by Mr. Lloyd, decent blues singing and guitar by Higgins, and hand drumming in abundance. If you can listen sympathetically, you may love it. If not, proceed with caution.

OLLABELLE -- Black Southern gospel, rural blues, Appalachian music, roots rock -- it's all one thing, if a smart modern musician wants it to be. The New York band Ollabelle has six of them, including the singers Amy Helm (Levon's daughter) and Fiona McBain, the keyboardist Glenn Patscha (who used to live in New Orleans, where he played in some good jazz and blues bands) and the guitarist Jimi Zhivago. Nearly all of them sing, and on ''Ollabelle'' (DMZ/Columbia) they blend church vocal arrangements with grooves measured out in slow, fat drips.

LUCIANA SOUZA -- Using a literary stimulus isn't new for this Brazilian-American jazz singer: she set Elizabeth Bishop's poems to music for a 2000 album, and on ''Neruda'' (Sunnyside) she does the same for Pablo Neruda. But Ms. Souza's second inspiration was to use a musical stimulus from the past as well: the Catalan composer Federico Mompou. Mixed in with the songs on ''Neruda'' (which are accompanied by Ed Simon on piano) are parts of Mompou's ''Songs and Dances'' for solo piano; Ms. Souza's fresh, wandering art-song melodies bleed into or out of them. Ms. Souza doesn't mess around: over the last five years her albums have shown her to be an impressive singer of jazz and Brazilian music, with an agile, well-controlled voice. Now she's gaining momentum as a quite serious composer.

TLAHOUN GÈSSÈSSÈ -- In the early 1970's, Mr. Gèssèssè's records were alive with the trebly, scratching, rhythm guitars, punching horn sections and James Brown-style drum rhythms that were flooding the world. Except that he was Ethiopian, his songs used Arabic and Eastern scales and his bands were state-run institutions. Mr. Gèssèssè, still alive and still a pop idol, started his career with the Imperial Body Guard Band; the most trancelike funk on ''Éthiopiques, Volume 17'' (Buda Musique) -- a compilation of Mr. Gèssèssè's tracks from the 70's -- is played by another martial ensemble, the Army Band. The disc, the latest in a fabulous series tracking the history of Ethiopian recorded music on the French label Buda, makes the case for Mr. Gèssèssè. His voice slips from a gargled upper-middle register to a yodel or a shriek, and flutters through a weave of scale notes, muezzin-style; sometimes he pauses between phrases, aware of his power, and lets out a chuckle.

VIENTO DE AGUA -- For two centuries, bomba and plena have been the rootsy rhythm music of black Puerto Rico, among the island's most potent cultural symbols. While Puerto Rico's popular music has been taken over by salsa and now reggaeton, there have always been ''bombiplena'' groups, preserving the tradition; Viento de Agua, based in New York, is among the best of the newer ones. Usually it has lodged the traditional rhythms and instruments in a contemporary dance-band context. But on ''Viento de Agua Unplugged: Materia Prima'' (Smithsonian Folkways), the band narrows down to drums and vocals and unapologetically presents the real thing. It's vibrant, beautiful, cool-headed music, and well recorded. The drums of all sizes and the chorus of baritone-to-soprano voices provide melody enough without need for any other instruments.